Foreign vehicles entering UK should be recorded, say councils

Local authorities call on the Government to start logging foreign vehicles
after a study reveals millions of parking fines issued to cars registered
abroad have to be written off

Photo: ALAMY

By Alex Robbins

11:21AM BST 05 Aug 2014

Local authorities are asking the Government to start collecting details of foreign vehicles as they cross the UK’s borders after it was revealed that millions of pounds’ worth of parking tickets issued to cars registered abroad are being written off each year because their owners can’t be traced.

The new figures come from a survey of a third of local councils, commissioned by the Local Government Association, the results of which have been released today.

The study found that Bournemouth council have been forced to shred £57,000-worth of parking tickets, while Maidstone council has done the same with £28,455-worth.

Meanwhile, Leicester City Council has written off £20,000-worth of tickets in the past year and Torbay, Milton Keynes and Doncaster councils have had to shred parking tickets with a of £15,810, £13,365, and £12,000 respectively.

The survey also revealed that two per cent of all parking tickets issued in Brighton are given to non-UK-registered vehicles, and that Oxfordshire, Southampton and Portsmouth councils have collectively had to scrap more than 10,000 tickets issued to foreign-registered vehicles in the past five years, with a total value of more than £500,000.

The LGA wants the Government to start logging foreign cars as they enter the UK

EU laws mean that any vehicle registered in Europe is permitted to drive on British roads for up to six months without any requirement to register the vehicle with the DVLA.

However, the LGA says that as the Government has no way of tracking these vehicles as they come into and leave the country, it is almost impossible to trace their owners, or indeed, to determine when a car has overstayed.

The Association points out that the same is not true of British-registered vehicles when they’re overseas, with laws in some countries allowing British drivers who’ve parked to be tracked down and chased for fines.

Currently, the DVLA only records information about vehicles registered abroad if they’re reported by the police for committing an offence, or through tip-offs from the public.

The LGA is calling on the Government to change that by logging foreign-registered vehicles as they enter and leave the country.

Cllr Peter Box, chair of the LGA’s Economy and Transport Board, said: “EU limits allowing foreign-registered cars to drive on our roads for six months before registering are arguably too long. However, the fact the Government isn't actually tracking cars coming in and out of the country and is unaware how many exceed the deadline makes this largely irrelevant.

“Introducing a central database would allow the Government to get tougher on people failing to register their vehicle. A crackdown on those trying to cheat the system would see a greater number registered to UK addresses and councils finally able chase payment of some of these outstanding parking fines.”